Survey of the Insects in Ghana with Systematic Studies on Spider Beetles and Dung Beetles

NSF建议DEB-0430132菲利普斯上几内亚森林昆虫调查加纳对蜘蛛甲虫和屎甲虫进行了系统研究上西非几内亚森林被认为是世界上25个生物多样性热点之一，是重要的避难所和高度物种传播区。与热带其他受威胁地区相比，人们对该栖息地昆虫多样性的了解较差。在上几内亚森林进行昆虫调查是极其迫切的，因为这个生态系统比大多数其他全球热点地区受到的威胁更大，消失的速度更快。对这些森林的严重压力来自于世界上一些最高的人口增长率、最密集的伐木以及猖獗的丛林猎杀。该项目的主要目标是：1)利用各种收集技术，对加纳几内亚森林以及大草原和亚萨哈利安地区另外两个地区的昆虫进行密集调查，收集以前分类学家无法获得的大量脊椎动物类群；2)开发和修复东道国的权威参考资料集，从而创建一个国家昆虫集，并将其纳入全球系统群落；3)教育和培训学生，并与加纳(加纳大学(莱贡)、科学与工业研究中心和加纳野生动物协会)的科学家和西肯塔基大学的学生合作，介绍昆虫采样技术、生物多样性研究和昆虫管理，为加纳提供亟需的科学系统专门知识；4)与加纳野生动物协会和其他组织及个人合作，在网上提供可访问的数据库，提供蜘蛛甲虫和粪甲虫的识别钥匙和图像以及关于该组织的所有现有生物信息。这一建议的学术价值在于，通过提供大量昆虫样本供研究，以改进昆虫分类和分类，从而最终更好地了解这些研究较少、受到高度威胁的森林的生物多样性，而昆虫分类是生物学的基石。这项工作还将导致对两个主要目标群体的多样性和进化的了解：1)蜘蛛甲虫，这是可以说是最不为人所知的非洲甲虫群体，以及2)仍然非常不为人所知和研究的屎甲虫。后者在该地区的生态学上也没有被研究过，由于其复杂的群落和行为，引起了人们的极大兴趣。它们也是生态系统健康的指标，因此对保护组织来说非常有用。更广泛的影响包括更好地了解非洲热带森林的生物多样性、其演化、生态和生物地理。此外，学生培训、在加纳发展系统学基础设施、与该国的主要保护机构合作以及创建网上可访问的昆虫信息的重要方面将导致加纳和美国公民获得更好的教育，并有望保护西非上几内亚森林中不可替代的生物多样性自然遗产。

NSF Proposal DEB-0430132Philips A survey of the insects of the Upper Guinean Forestsin Ghana with systematic studies on spider beetles and dung beetles The Upper West African Guinean forests are considered one of 25 biodiversityhotspots in the world and are a vital refuge and region of high speciesendemicity. Knowledge of insect diversity in this habitat is poor relative tothat found in other threatened areas in the tropics. There is extreme urgencyfor an insect survey in the Upper Guinean forests because this ecosystem is morethreatened and is disappearing more quickly than most other global hotspots.Severe pressure on these forests results from some of the highest humanpopulation growth rates, most intensive logging, and rampant bushmeat huntingfound anywhere in the world. The main goals of this project are: 1) to conductan intensive survey of insects in the Guinean forests of Ghana and twoadditional areas in savannah and sub-sahalian regions, using a wide variety ofcollecting techniques, resulting in the collection of a large diversity ofinvertebrate groups previously unavailable to systematists; 2) to develop andrehabilitate a host country authoritative reference collection thereby creatinga national insect collection and integrating it into the global systematicscommunity; 3) to educate and train students and collaborate with scientists fromGhana (University of Ghana (Legon), Centre for Scientific and IndustrialResearch, and The Ghana Wildlife Society) and students from Western KentuckyUniversity on insect sampling techniques, biodiversity studies, and insectcuration providing much needed scientific systematic expertise in Ghana; 4) topartner with The Ghana Wildlife Society and other organizations and individualsby providing web accessible databases with identification keys and images ofspider beetles and dung beetles and all available biological information on thegroup. The intellectual merit of this proposal is to ultimately better understandthe biodiversity of these poorly studied and highly threatened forests byproviding large numbers insect samples for study to improve insect taxonomy andclassifications, the cornerstone of biology, while they still exist. This workwill also result in knowledge on the diversity and evolution of two main targetgroups: 1) the spider beetles which are arguably the most poorly known group ofAfrican beetles, and 2) the dung beetles that are still very poorly known andstudied. The latter group is also ecologically unstudied in this region and isof great interest because of the complex communities and behaviors exhibited.They are also indicative of ecosystem health and hence extremely useful toconservation organizations. The broader impacts include a better understandingof African tropical forest biodiversity, its evolution, ecology, andbiogeography. Additionally, the vital aspect of student training, developing asystematics infrastructure in Ghana, partnering with the primary conservationagency in this country, and creating web accessible information on insects willlead to better education of citizens of Ghana and the United States andhopefully protection of the irreplaceable natural heritage of biodiversity inthe Upper Guinean forests of West Africa.